Convicted murderer Eli Stutzman, formerly of the Amish of Wayne County, Ohio, has died. Stutzman gained notoriety after his nine-year old son’s body was found frozen in Nebraska in 1985. Stutzman was never convicted of murder in that case, only of lesser charges. He was also suspected in his wife’s mysterious death in a barn fire, as well as in two other deaths. Stutzman was…
Another midwife case is in the news. Many Amish women prefer bearing their children at home or in specially-constructed birthing centers. Reasons include the comfort of being in familiar surroundings as opposed to the foreign environment of the hospital, as well as cost. It’s usually a lot cheaper to have a child at home than in a hospital. The Amish have 6-8 children on average,…
The Amish don’t use ‘thee’, ‘thine’, or ‘thou’, as you might think after watching Weird Al’s video. Neither do they speak like Alexander Godunov or Jan Rubes did in Witness. Check that, at least one Amishman today does–but he was born in Germany and converted to the faith in his 20’s. They mostly speak English like any rural Americans would. Though you could say there…
A few years ago a great book was published, entitled The Amish In Their Own Words, edited by Brad Igou of Amish Country News. Brad combed through 25 years of Amish writings in Family Life magazine, putting together a collection of Amish wisdom, history, and explanations of why they do the things they do, all written from an Old Order standpoint. If you’ve ever wondered…